Yemen’s fight for lost territory reaches the Bab el-Mandeb shipping passage

Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced as renewed fighting in Yemen reaches the area around Bab el-Mandeb, a vital passage for maritime traffic, according to Africanews. Government forces are trying to recover territory seized by Houthi rebels last month. The struggle now spans positions near the strait and a major road connecting the besieged city of Taiz with the government’s seat in Aden.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government says it has begun a major military operation against the Iran-backed Houthis. Africanews reported that government troops were fighting the rebels on and near the strait. The operation follows a Houthi advance that brought the group control of the strategic city of Mokha and several islands in the Red Sea, expanding its reach towards the shipping passage.

A territorial shift beside a vital waterway

The capture of Mokha and the islands was the Houthis’ largest territorial gain in years, according to Africanews. It also ended a ceasefire reached in 2022 that had largely halted major combat in Yemen’s 12-year civil war. For government forces, the immediate challenge is to reverse those gains in an area whose significance extends beyond the land itself: Bab el-Mandeb is a key route for maritime traffic.

Footage broadcast on Sunday in a Sky News exclusive showed armed government forces near the strait. Sky News correspondents also reported Houthi fighters nearby. That account places both sides close to the waterway, although the source provides no figures for troop numbers or a detailed account of how far the government’s operation has advanced. It describes an active battle rather than a completed effort to regain the territory.

Tafiq Al-Haboun, commander of the Larj National Security Forces, told Sky News that this confrontation differed from earlier wars against the Houthis. He described a more advanced fight and said the rebels had superior weapons, listing drones, Kornets and long-range ballistic missiles. His account presented those weapons as a new feature of the fighting his forces were encountering.

Al-Haboun said his forces had not previously encountered the weapons he described in fighting with the Houthis.

A second pressure point around Taiz

The government operation is unfolding alongside a Houthi offensive on the outskirts of Taiz. In recent days, the rebels have attacked government forces and their allies there, disrupting a major road to Aden, according to Africanews. The port city serves as the seat of the internationally recognised government led by Rashad al-Alimi. The Houthis have maintained a siege of Taiz for more than a decade.

The next developments to watch are whether government forces regain the territory lost last month and how the fighting around Taiz affects the disrupted Aden road. Together, those fronts put the focus on control of territory beside a vital shipping passage and access along an important land connection, as civilians face another wave of deaths and displacement.